4.
"Asher."
In the end, I couldn't stop myself from calling out to him one last time.
But he didn't turn around.
And just like that, I remembered the first words each of them said the year they woke.
One swore he would be my guard, at my side whenever I called.
The other swore I would be no princess but a queen, every command mine to give.
Yet now he couldn't spare so much as a moment to let me say goodbye.
I slipped the diamond off my finger.
A pink diamond, many carats, blinding even in the dark, the gaudy nouveau-riche kind Emily had cast aside as beneath her.
On my withered finger it looked like something I'd stolen.
I threw it into the sea and climbed barefoot over the railing.
The sun broke free of the water, blazing gold.
I tipped backward and fell into the deep.
My body dissolved into foam, drifting out with the waves without a single sound.
Asher turned, as if he'd sensed something,
and saw only the empty deck.
He closed his eyes a moment and let out a tired sigh.
By custom, before setting out, the lady of the shipping house led the sailors' families in a blessing before the statue of the Sea God.
Emily and Asher stood at the center of it, shoulder to shoulder.
"You shouldn't have come out here. The wind's strong on the water."
Asher steadied her, helplessness in his eyes.
"I can't let Mari carry it all forever. Once my recovery's done, I mean to learn to navigate too."
Emily's voice was gentle.
Asher didn't argue. All at once he thought of Mari.
He thought: if Emily took to the sea, maybe he could wean himself off her, maybe Mari would lose her temper a little less.
His mind hadn't wandered long before the appointed hour arrived.
Asher lifted his head and didn't see Marisol.
"Where did Mari go? Go find her."
"Asher, maybe Mari's just avoiding us. Don't be upset."
Emily's words left him strangely on edge.
He knew the Tideveil Sea had cursed him, knew he wasn't to board any ship. He stepped onto the deck anyway and went searching with quick strides.
The next moment, the sky went dark all at once, and the wind and waves rose on the sea.
The sailors' faces changed, and they whispered uneasily among themselves.
"The Sea God is angry! The second young master truly is one the sea won't bless!"
"Where is Miss Marisol? Only with her here will the storm quiet."
"We want to see her!"
Amid the clamor, Asher's expression grew darker and darker.
The ship pitched under the battering waves, rocking violently.
The half-shut door of my room banged open in the wind, and Asher turned on instinct.
He saw a bed soaked in blood.
Blood that had flowed out of my body.
At the foot of the bed lay countless dull, dimmed scales.
The skin a mermaid sheds before she dies.
"Second young master! We can't find Miss Marisol anywhere!"
"Second young master! The cameras show... they show her last on the deck!"
Asher's brow twitched, and he raced to the deck.
Emily stood there, bewildered, the sea behind her drifting full of snow-white foam.
"Asher."
He pushed her aside, muttering to himself,
"The legends say a mermaid turns to foam... but how could that be..."
"Mari lived three whole years just fine, didn't she. It can't be... it can't be..."
He raised his eyes to Emily, meaning to give her a reassuring smile.
His gaze fixed on her, and his face drained of color.
He watched the heart-scale necklace crumble to ash out of nothing,
gone in an instant, just like the foam on the sea.
At last something dawned on him, and he hurled himself toward the water like a madman.
"Mari!"
